POE – LLAMANZARES v.
COMELEC
G.R. NO. 221697, March 08, 2016
FACTS:
Petitioner, Mary Grace Natividad S. Poe-Llamanzares (Poe) was found
abandoned as a newborn infant in the Parish Church of Jaro, Iloilo on Sept. 3, 1968.
After passing the parental care and custody over petitioner by Edgardo Militar to
Emiliano Militar and his wife, she has been reported and registered as a foundling and
issued a Foundling Certificate and Certificate of Live Birth, thus was given the name,
Mary Grace Natividad Contreras Militar.
When Poe reached the age of five (5), celebrity spouses Ronal Allan Kelley (aka
Fernando Poe, Jr) and Jesusa Sonora Poe (aka Susan Roces) filed a petition foe her
adoption. The trial court granted their petition and ordered that her name be changed to
Mary Grace Natividad Sonora Poe.
At the age of 18 in 1986 Poe registered as a voter in San Juan City; in 1988, she
applied and was issued Philippine Passport by the DFA; in 1993 and 1998, she
renewed her passport.
Subsequently, Poe left for the United States (U.S.) in 1988 to continue her
studies after enrolling and pursuing a degree in Development Studies at the University
of the Philippines. She graduated in 1991 from Boston College where she earned her
Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Studies. She then married Teodoro Misael Daniel V.
Llamanzares, a citizen of both the Philippines and the U.S., in San Juan City and
decided to flew back to the U.S. after their wedding. She gave birth to her eldest child
while in the U.S.; and her two daughters in the Philippines.
In 2001, Poe became a naturalized American citizen. She came back to the
Philippines to support her father’s candidacy for president in the May 2004 elections
and gave birth to her youngest daughter. They then returned to the U.S. in 2004 but
after few months, she rushed back to the Philippines to attend to her ailing father. After
her father’s death, the petitioner and her husband decided to move and reside
permanently in the Philippines in 2005 and immediately secured a TIN, then her
children followed suit; acquired property where she and her children resided.
In 2006, Poe took an Oath of Allegiance to the Republic of the Philippines
pursuant to RA No. 9225 or the Citizenship retention and Re-acquisition Act of 2003;
she filed a sworn petition to reacquire Philippine citizenship together with petitions for
derivative citizenship on behalf of her three children which was granted. She registered
as a voter; secured Philippine passport; appointed and took her oath as Chairperson of
the MTRCB after executing an affidavit of Renunciation of American citizenship before
the Vice Consul of the USA and was issued a Certificate of Loss of Nationality of the
USA in 2011.
In 2012, she filed with the COMELEC her Certificate of Candidacy (COC) for
Senator for the 2013 Elections wherein she stated “6 years and 6 months” to the
question “Period of residence in the Philippines before May 13, 2013.” Poe obtained the
highest number of votes and was proclaimed Senator on 16 May 2013.
On 15 October 2015, petitioner filed her COC for the Presidency for the May
2016 Elections. In her COC, Poe declared that she is a natural-born citizen and that her
residence in the Philippines up to the day before 9 May 2016 would be ten (10) years
and eleven (11) months counted from 24 May 2005. The petitioner attached to her COC
an Affidavit Affirming Renunciation of U.S.A. Citizenship subscribed and sworn to before
a notary public in Quezon City on 14 October 2015.
Petitions were filed before the COMELEC to deny or cancel her candidacy on the
ground particularly, among others, that she cannot be considered a natural-born Filipino
citizen since she cannot prove that her biological parents or either of them were
Filipinos. The COMELEC en banc cancelled her candidacy on the ground that she was
in want of citizenship and residence requirements, and that she committed material
misrepresentations in her COC.
On certiorari, the Supreme Court reversed the ruling and held (9-6 votes) that
Poe is qualified as a candidate for Presidency. Three justices, however, abstained to
vote on the natural-born citizenship issue.
ISSUE:
Whether or not Mary Grace Natividad S. Poe-Llamanzares is a natural-born
Filipino citizen.
RULING:
Yes. Mary Grace Natividad S. Poe-Llamanzares may be considered a natural-
born Filipino.
The Court ruled that a foundling is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines as
there is no restrictive language which would definitely exclude foundlings as they are
already impliedly so recognized.There are also no provisions in the Constitution with
intent or language permitting discrimination against foundlings as the three
Constitutions guarantee the basic right to equal protection of the laws.
In addition, foundlings are citizens under international law as this is supported by
some treaties, adhering to the customary rule to presume foundlings as having born of
the country in which the foundling is found.
